Sometimes Treason and Patriotism Look Awfully Similar

Duty to country does not always mean following the law.

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There has been a lot of debate in the United States lately questioning the moral acceptability of taking the law into your own hands. This comes on the heel of the George Zimmerman verdict, the Edward Snowden leak and Chelsea Manning’s coming out as a WikiLeaks informant. Each of these individuals, in different ways, decided to take the law into their own hands. As someone who has grown up idolizing comic book vigilantes—I divulged recently my plan to put together a combat suit and acquire the skills and knowledge-base of comic book heroes—these stories give me cause for contemplation.

Most people responded to the Zimmerman story with outrage, for a variety of reasons, but the Snowden and Manning cases are significantly more morally ambiguous. There are many of viewpoints that are equally valid, some saying that any actions against the American government should be punishable while others call for pardons, but there is one specific argument that to me is simply untrue: the claim that Snowden or Manning were being unpatriotic.

There is one specific argument that to me is simply untrue: the claim that Snowden or Manning were being unpatriotic.

Argue the right and wrong of it all day long, I think that we should all agree, without question, that the most patriotic thing an American citizen can do is to disagree with the government in the name of public interest. If we want to debate taking the law into our own hands, we should really examine what it means to be an American first.

When James Madison included the Bill of Rights to the American Constitution, it was established as a standard of fundamental rights possessed by every American citizen. The Bill of Rights also doubled as a safeguard against oppressive government acquiring too much power by offering the freedom of the press and speech. While Snowden’s employment by Booz Allen Hamilton may make this point moot, the Pickering v. Board of Education (1968) ruling established that the government as an employer cannot fire an employee for speech “on matters of public concern.” While Snowden’s job security is not necessarily protected by this, it does establish that speech of this manner, released to in the name of public service, is not inherently a treasonous act. The final portion of the Pickering test is whether or not the speech made public disrupts the government’s abilities to perform its duties, which is arguable and only for the Supreme Court to decide after being given all available information.

I don’t condone breaking the law, but there are times when the law is wrong. The history of the United States is rife with times when the law has not sought to protect the American people; we have interned the East Asian populace in fear of the Japanese, we have lawfully kept people as property, we have tracked and persecuted individuals for their political affiliations, etc. The Supreme Court exists for the sole reason that these hiccups are an inevitable and foreseen occurrence with any governing body.

“When we engaged those that we perceived were the enemy, we sometimes killed innocent civilians. Whenever we killed innocent civilians, instead of accepting responsibility for our conduct, we elected to hide behind the veil of national security and classified information in order to avoid any public accountability.”

In Chelsea Manning’s letter request for a pardon, she writes, “When we engaged those that we perceived were the enemy, we sometimes killed innocent civilians. Whenever we killed innocent civilians, instead of accepting responsibility for our conduct, we elected to hide behind the veil of national security and classified information in order to avoid any public accountability.”

I have known and loved many friends who returned from Iraq and Afghanistan in psychological ruin after following orders to knowingly torture or kill innocents; I regret that I do not possess the writing skill to convey to you what it must be like to have done something that, at your core, you believe to be the most horrendous and sadistic thing a human being can do. I can’t tell you what it’s like to leave your country to fight for freedom and justice, feeling self-assured and noble, and come back feeling like a murderer, a slaughterer of children, having lost all faith in the country you once believed to be a bastion of the good and the just. But I can tell you about how I sat on the couch and my friend in the chair, how we had dimmed all the lights so his face was cast in a muted orange glow, how he couldn’t look at me, how he stared straight ahead, eyes forced wide and welled with water, as he described to me the fear twisted into the child’s face. He told me how he tried to fight back against the order, how he argued, He’s unarmed! And was told, You don’t know that! And answered, Yes, I do! He looks like he’s twelve. He’s just wearing shorts. He’s unarmed. I’m sure of it. And heard his commanding officer bark, I gave you an order. I can tell you that my friend will never be the same and that he is one of far too many with similar experiences.

Here is what I think about Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden: I think that America has designed itself to be a great country standing on noble principles and that our structure has more or less enabled the nation to align with these original ideals; I think that sometimes the government betrays the people, because sometimes we all make terrible mistakes when we try too hard to do the right thing; I think that sometimes it is necessary to betray the government in order to protect the people and to remind the government of its duties. Most importantly, I think that sometimes, when it is necessary to defy the government and to break the law, it is without question or moral dilemma an American citizen’s patriotic duty to do so. Anything less is un-American.

About An Tran

An Tran is a writer and athlete. His fiction and nonfiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Gargoyle Magazine, The Carolina Quarterly, Big Lucks, The Kartika Review, Connotation Press, and elsewhere. He has won four state records and competes nationally in powerlifting, practices and coaches parkour, and studies a long list of martial and acrobatic arts. He is an MFA candidate at Queens University of Charlotte and lives in Alexandria, VA.

[…] second installment of writing about vigilantism at the Good Men Project is a lot more real, taking a close examination of what it means to be an American and whether […]

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5 years ago

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PursuitAce

Explain to me how when we have a progressive in the White House why we need the Mannings and the Snowdens of the world. Or is it just time to admit that the President is not really one of us? I mean if he can’t control “the government” then where are we?

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5 years ago

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Copyleft

Obama has continued all of Bush’s worst policies and bent over backwards to serve Wall Street. If there was any lingering hope that he’s a ‘progressive,’ he’s now engaged in trying to start an unneeded war against Syria.

The notion of Obama being “one of us” is looooong gone, PA. That ship has sailed.

Remember how Governor Mitt Romney was, sure, a conservative, but a very moderate one with liberal tendencies who not only supported universal healthcare but wrote and established the universal healthcare coverage in his own state for his constituents? And then how candidate Romney was… a lunatic? I think it’s sort of like that. Candidate Obama was a lot of promises and a lot of (seemingly) heartfelt convictions. President Obama, first term, sympathized with the Occupiers, completely understood public frustration.

The thing is that it’s not the President’s job to control the government or to keep it in check. If that job belongs to anyone in the government, it’s the Supreme Court (the ones who judge whether the actions of the government/people are aligned with the Constitution). But I think, more realistically, it’s the job of the media and of journalists, although journalism as a politically-necessary artform has diminished significantly. Cultural theorists are only read by theorists, critics, and students in doctoral programs; meaningful journalism has been relegated to articles on high traffic websites, can gain great momentum, but are… Read more »

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5 years ago

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wellokaythen

I don’t mean this as any particular defense of Manning or Snowden, but I have to point out an even more obvious example of the overlap between treason and patriotism. The U.S. was founded by traitors to Britain and created through organized treason by colonists against their own government. The war of independence against Great Britain was clearly an act of treason – actually firing on the troops sent to enforce the laws of the empire. Washington, Jefferson, et al, didn’t just “love it or leave it” and didn’t just “support their troops.” The Declaration of Independence essentially states that… Read more »